It was a very close game. The winner had $14,801 after Final Jeopardy, the runnerup had $14,800. Piddock ended up with $14,400, despite having gotten the question right. But only the winner of the game takes home any cash. Piddock got a dual-deck videocassette recorder.

Piddock, 53, is an editor of children's magazines at Weekly Reader in Middletown. He tried out for the show on a trip to Atlantic City, N.J., where he took two tests and then played a mock game to test him for temperament. He ended up participating in the show, taped in Culver City, Calif., in November. He said the show only picks 400 contestants out of 25,000 applicants.

He said he didn't tell anybody the outcome of the game until it aired, as required by an agreement he signed with the show's producers.

When show host Alex Trebek introduced Piddock, the local resident revealed he wooed his wife with a $70 monkey.